


Watchers in the Night

by Beginning_Returner



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: APH EU is an edgy teen, And Gil gets to be her Fun Uncle, Don't copy to another site, Gen, In which the author is completely mad, and writes contemporary hetafic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 19:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19677850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beginning_Returner/pseuds/Beginning_Returner
Summary: In which Nina, aka APH European Union, gets mad about social injustices and the stupidity of governments.Gifted to the abovementioned user for his birthday. [irony] You are the absolute madman who made me actually write contemporary hetafic so this one's all your fault and you deserve it, boyo. [/irony]





	Watchers in the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stet/gifts).



"You know what, Papa Francis? I really hate you right now. Maybe next time you and your people arbitrarily decide something on the internet is bad, DON'T USE _MY_ AGENCIES TO COVER FOR YOUR SHIT."

With these words, the Incarnation of the EU stomped up the stairs to her room and slammed the door.

Only to reemerge a few moments later:

"Oh, and _by the way_ , thanks to _my_ people, it's now illegal to look at oh, almost anything on the internet. So guess what? Right now, I pretty much hate myself too."

The renewed slam of the door reverberated throughout the house.

Francis looked at Ludwig. "So, are you going up there? Because it's pretty much a certainty I won't do any good if I go."

Ludwig closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose. "When Nina gets like that, she's doesn't want to listen to me either."

Gilbert sighed, got up from the kitchen table. "I'll go talk to her."

On cautiously opening her door, the first thing he saw was one second of pure darkness followed by a pillow to the face.

"Go AWAY, Papa Ludwig, you're part of the fucking problem."

"Calm down, it's just me." The pillow fell to the floor and Gilbert could make out the silhouette of Nina crouched on her bed in one corner of the room.

"Oh. Sorry, Gilbert."

Gilbert quietly closed the door and sat down on the floor. The vibrant carpet in the middle of the room, a present from Bulgaria, was appreciably soft on his knees. Full and high in the sky, the Moon stretched its rays across the tapestry. There was silence as a wind swayed the tree branches outside, splaying shadows over the weaving. Gilbert was suddenly reminded of the olive that once grew outside his window at Acre when he was a child. He'd had a carpet quite like this one too.

He quietly waited for the sobbing from the bed to subside. Once the room was quiet, he opened his mouth, and began.

"Once upon a time, there was a king..."

"Are you going to tell me a Fritz story?" There was a noise of shuffling and blanket rearranging from the bed.

"What else would I ever tell you?"

"You still love him, don't you?"

"I think I always will."

"Even if he did lots of problematic stuff?"

"Well, that's true. But I love him despite all that. Because that's what love is, darling."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Little sparrow, please. Your parents are some of the most problematic entities to ever walk this earth, and you still love them, don't you?"

"That's not fair to _them_ , you know, not when everyone else is problematic too, I mean think about Sadik--"

"The _most_ important part, is not what you did, it's that you learn from what happened. For centuries, we did _all kinds of shit_ and just carried on as if nothing happened. Because we were stupid. ...I'd like to think we know a little better now. At least some of us."

More pillow scrunching noises came from the bed, and Nina's voice was muffled when she next spoke.

"I'm scared to think that someday I might do something _really_ stupid and then people will hate me for it."

"Don't worry, I don't think you're that dumb."

"Well, _no,_ but I'm made up of all kinds of stupid folks, who make stupid decisions _all the time_."

Her next words were barely audible.

"People are stupid. I hate that."

"Hey, at least your parents finally got married in both of their countries now."

"Wow, that only took like, three decades to happen."

"Be grateful. We'd often spend centuries where pretty much nothing happened."

"Grateful for what? That people don't beat you within an inch of your life for being queer any more? There's plenty of countries where that's still legal, you know. Is _this_ supposed to be the future? Things are supposed to be going _faster_. Instead, it seems like we're just stuck on a treadmill to nowhere."

She threw her face back into the pillow.

"Papa Francis and Ludwig should never have made me in the first place. Because it seems all I do is put up with everyone else's shit. And my own too."

Gilbert got up and quietly sat next to her prone form on the twisted sheet, ruffled what was visible of her hair.

Abruptly, there was a blur of motion and he found himself encircled by her arms. He kept brushing at her hair.

"They put you away in the dark when you were like, 16 in age for being queer. Don't you want better for other people now?"

"...Who told you that?"

"Fritz, actually. He wrote a small book about it. It's in the royal archives. He disguised it as an allegorical fantasy on the folly of religious superstition, but it was super obvious."

Nina hugged Gilbert very tightly then. Because she could feel his shoulders shaking. Because she could feel the wetness that fell on her face.

The moon filled the time that followed with its rays, slowly stretching towards the bed.

"Hey." Gilbert's voice was more rough than normal. He hadn't exactly been making coherent sounds in the last little while. "In my opinion, the best remedy to powerlessness is direct action. And I got word. From a friend. There are idiots in this town who are going to try and pull something tonight."

Even in the darkness, she could see his grin.

"Wanna go punch some fascists?"

Her answering smile was dazzling.

"Oh BOY, do I EVER. I'll go get my outfit."

"That's my girl."

* * *

Ludwig gingerly opened Nina's door. "How are you two doing in there? There's still plenty torte in the fridge if you want some."

The empty room gave no answer.

"Oh, shit, not again." Ludwig ran a hand through his hair.

"Well, I certainly saw that one coming," said Francis from behind him.

"I never should have let him build secret passages into the house."

"Excuse me. Did you just say-- secret passages? And why am I only learning of this now?"

"I didn't explicitly let him build those, he just went ahead and had them mapped out on the blueprints while I was busy. Said they'd be useful for sneaking in significant others without using creaky staircases."

"Wait-- does your bedroom have one too?"

"Of course. Said he believed in equal opportunity sneaking."

"Darling, I'm disappointed in you. All these years, and you never told me?"

"But our daughter--"

"Will be fine. She's got Gilbert with her, not to mention thirty years of martial arts training. Now get over here. I want a tour of those passages right now."

**Author's Note:**

> In German, _wachen_ can mean to watch over someone, like a child, from which is then derived the meaning of someone as a _Wache_ , ie. on watch duty.
> 
> My blog [is right here](https://modoru-mono.tumblr.com/). I mostly post history and archaeology with a smattering of good Hetalia. Feel free to give me a yell on ask or messenger over there if you enjoyed the fic!
> 
>  **"you and your people arbitrarily decide something on the internet is bad":** [Reference here](https://blog.archive.org/2019/04/10/official-eu-agencies-falsely-report-more-than-550-archive-org-urls-as-terrorist-content/).
> 
>  **"it's now illegal to look at oh, almost anything on the internet":** [Reference here](https://boingboing.net/2019/04/18/we-fight-on.html).
> 
>  **"Go AWAY, Papa Ludwig, you're part of the fucking problem.":** [Reference here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_Copyright_in_the_Digital_Single_Market#Legislative_process).
> 
>  **"The vibrant carpet in the middle of the room, a present from Bulgaria":** [Reference here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiprovtsi_carpet).
> 
>  **"There are idiots in this town who are going to try and pull something tonight.":** [See here for details](https://antifainternational.tumblr.com/tagged/berlin). There's always something going on. (Links do not constitute endorsements.)


End file.
